Driving along in our camper van...waving at others when we can! So the drive continued...not much to see to be honest like always. We came to a road sign which said 'prepare for delays'... Seriously? We hadn't passed a car for miles...I couln't see there being delays. When we got to where the road works were ther was a woman holding a stop sign. There was no traffic or cars coming the other way! As we began to stop she turned the sign to reveal the otherwise which said 'slow'. Was this for real? Haha. They get paid $40 per hour to do that job and it's completely unnecessary! Don't you think? I can't imagine this road ever getting busy...EVER!!! 

We drove on and finally arrive at a little place called Kununurra. We stopped there for a longish break. We had been driving a good long while. There were showers at the stop so I went and took advantage of them...the only thing was they were trucker showers which were NEVER cleaned...ewwww. There was dirt in the sink a hairball in the corner of the shower and I didn't dare look down the toilet. I still manned up and just showered though, it was needed! Although I'm pretty sure I came out feeling dirtier than I did! Yuck! 

We continued our drive until we arrived at lake argyle. As we were getting closer the sun was setting over the rocks in the distance and it looked like a scene from the lion king, it was awesome! Of course when that image was in our head out came the Disney tunes and we sang along to the classics; 'hakuna mattata', 'just cant wait to be king' and many more Disney songs.

We ended up on a campsite that night, so I'd taken that dirty shower for nothing!!! Great! We tried sneaking onto the site to get a free night but we got caught...damn! The man was right on our case. He guided us back to reception...as we turned around to go back Curly reversed  straight into the wall. Bang! Luckily big Bertha survived, the wall took the biggest hit! Oopsy! 

It was mine and Justine's cooking duty and it was an easy task of making lemon chicken! Well...what a disaster it turned out to be. The chicken was cooked to perfection...I can't say the same for the rice. I don't know what happened it just went crazy. It went a by like mashed potato. We also tried to make it egg fried rice and was told by Curly to just add the raw egg. Well it then went to even more of a disaster, the egg didn't really cook and made it even mushier! It looked very similar to joes flavour paste! Everyone ate it though...but it was the first night that nobody had taken seconds. Oops! 

The sun rose and off we ventured to see Lake Argyle. We drove to a few view points but there's only so much you can see of a lake. Right? It was pretty beautiful though and absolutely massive!

Then off we went again...this is the day we crossed the border into the Northern Territory and we continued on the long road through the town of Katherine and to Edith falls, where we went for a swim under the waterfall! It majorly cooled us down though. It did remind me a little of the film 'Lake placid!' just a big still lake with only us in it. It could have been the start of a horror movie! Liam did a bit of rock climbing and jumping into the lake even though the only two signs around the lake were no climbing or no diving! Haha. 

After good swim we all got out. On the walk back to the camper we passed a sign which had pictures and names of the creatures that lived in or around the lake...well if I'd seen the sign before going swimming, there's no way in hell I would have put a foot in the water. There were fresh water crocs, snapper turtles and fresh water snakes. What the hell were we thinking?? Plus we got out just after 6.30pm. The fresh water crocs start feeding at 7pm. 

We dried off and then continued on our journey looking for a rest area to camp the night. We ended up driving and driving until we came across a sign which said 224km to Darwin. That's about 2 hours! We had driven so far and there had not been one bloody rest stop...not one. When we crossed the border to northern territory we saw at least one rest stop every 20km. What the hell happened? When we weren't looking for one there were loads and now that we were looking there were none! 

Well we stopped to confer with the group and the vote was to continue to Darwin as we were so close.  The only problem was it was very dark outside by this point...so we had to be on a proper lookout for kangaroos. Trust it to be my turn driving. I was expecting the first rest stop to be in 20 minutes of leaving the falls...was it hell. About 10 minutes into the drive after the decision was made we came across a rest area sign!!! Brilliant. It was a sign from god! Haha. It had been a long night and we were starving and tired so it was a quick meal and then bed...for a few anyway. Curly, liam and Janis made another fire.  They were getting the hang of it now. 

We had a lie in the next morning as we were so close to Darwin. It was liam's duty to get us there.  We eventually made it to the city and tried calling a number of campsites to get a spot for a couple of nights. 
Most places were fully booked because of V8 weekend...how did we not know that was going on? We managed to find one spot but the lady on the phone said it might b a squeeze for a camper our size. It was the only spot left so we had no choice but to take it. 

She wasn't wrong when she said it would be tight! The space was between a tree and a palm tree, on the corner of the road as well... To get in you needed three people guiding the driver. It was crazy small but Liam managed it...for not having driven for 6years prior to this, his manoeuvre skills were pretty good.  It was still early when we were parked up so we spent most of the day just chilling out by the pool.

Justine and me cooked food later that evening whilst Curly, Liam and Janis took Big Bertha out to stock up on alcohol. As she was pulling out she did almost crash into a tent but successfully made it out in the end.

The food was ready about 15 minutes before they returned with the goods! So cold pasta was on the menu for the night, but we weren't really bothered...we were to psyched to get our drink on. It was a sort of leaving party for Justine and Liam so it had to be a gooood night! 

The games had begun and we were on a mission. Box head was out it got messy pretty fast. I made up the rule of nobody can use first names which made Justine come out with the question: 'Is it offensive to call him adolf?' talking about Janis of course as he's german! Haha. Well I was crying...she didn't call him it though but we realised it wouldn't have been that offensive to him as curly started to call him 'hitler youth!' haha. 

A good few goon boxes later we got a taxi to town. We started the night in Shenanigans. There was a live band playing awesome tunes...well me and Justine just went mental in there. So crazy in fact the people on the dancefloor spread out so we had pretty much all the space. 

We moved on a bit later to a club called monsoon. This is where we met two of Liams mates from home. They were cool. We ended up pretty merry dancing the night away. Towards the end of the night some random guy fell off the stage and took down part of the curtain, it was quite funny, but what was even funnier... Not quite sure what was going through Liams head at the time but he just turned his back towards that same curtain and just fell backwards ripping the whole curtain down with him. It was hysterical... even the bouncers that saw were laughing but of course they had to throw him out. At the door the bouncers were all chatting about it. I wish I had a video camera...it would have been a YouTube hit! Me and Justine followed Liam out only to find Joe had been kicked out an hour or so ago... curly found him asleep on the pavement outside. What a mess! 

We all then took a cab back to the boys place...which was a little cabin on a building site. The boys said there was drink and food there so we could continue the party. When we actually got there there was no food and no drink...haha. We just hung out there for a while playing with their dogs. Joe fell asleep and was getting trampled by the dogs for a while until we eventually decides to get a ride home...it was about 6.30am after all. 

Oh the next day was not fun! It was a struggle. We didn't actually get out of bed until the afternoon and the rest of the day was pretty much spent by the pool. It had been a crazy night.

In the evening we all went to go out for a meal as a farewell to Justine but we ended up giving in and just had eagle boys pizza. The perfect cure for a hangover! We then just had an early night! We were stupidly tired. Justine had to be at the airport for 6am as well so it made sense. It wasn't the most eventful day.

Up we got...bright and early chauffeuring Justine to the airport so he could fly back to Perth to see Connor!  We waved her off and we were on our way again. As we were up early we thought we'd treat ourselves to a Mcdonalds breakfast so get some energy.  Then later that morning it was off to work for me to get a bit of extra cash. $25 per hour for basically standing playing on an iPad all day! Loving it! Haha. The rest of them spent the day at the beach until it was time to pick me up. It was only 6 hours work then the time had come to say bye to Liam. 

We all went for a drink at a bar and grill until liams friend came to take him away! The super 6 had now become the fantastic four! 

Back on the road we went, heading south to Lichfield national park! 
The park was only a few hours south but it was getting dark so we were on the hunt for a rest area again. We were having no luck again on finding one. It was getting darker and darker and then i heard joe shout; 'oh no that's so sad!' He had only gone and ran over a family of ducks walking across the road! What a murderer haha! Those poor ducks were only trying to cross the road. Awww! 

A few more km down the road was a very dark rest area...from the look of the place I honestly thought we were going to be murdered just like those ducks! But we woke up all fresh and still alive so that was all good! 

We set off once again for our day at Litchfield.  Our first stop was the Termite mounds. It doesn't sound that interesting I know, but it was only a quick stop. They were pretty cool to see, they were HUGE! And it was very hard to believe that such small creatures had built these massive mounds! They were three times the size of me! We only stopped for a few pictures and then on we went to Florence falls. This along with our next stop Wangi falls was beautiful! They were large waterfalls flowing into a huge freshwater lake where you could swim. We did a lot of swimming that day although I did need convincing to get into the lake at Wangi falls. We passed a sign which said fresh water and salt water crocs are known to be in the area. That didn't fill me with confidence but I got persuaded to go in, plus there were  a lot of children in there swimming so if we happened to come across a crocodile I felt a bit safer knowing that the kids would probably go first. 

The last stop was a long walk which eventually led to something...not sure what. Me and curly got so hot and bored we turned back and chilled at the camper to cool down. When Joe and Janos returned an hour later it turned out there wasn't much to see anyway! Luckily we turned back then aye?

After the long eventful day we'd had we started the trip back to Darwin. We had a last overnight stay at a campsite where enjoyed a lovely last meal and popped a bottle of champagne to toast to the trip. It was a lovely ending to the trip. 

Before taking the camper back we had one last stop at another lake where we enjoyed one last swim after working up a sweat gutting the camper of all our rubbish and cleaning it so it was spotless. It was a job well done. 

We had come to the end of our adventure.  It was another 6000mile road trip for me and the end of my travel adventures for now as well. We had a week of chilling out in the hot hot city of Darwin when we realised there was no work for us up there...damn! We have now flown to Melbourne and I am about to becoming a farm girl for 3 months! Can you believe it? We'll see how long it lasts. Hopefully longer than 5 hours this time.

Well that's it from me for a while again. I hope you enjoyed my adventures as much as I did. Feel for me while I spend my birthday in the middle of nowhere in the cold on a farm! Yay! Haha. I'm sure it won't be that bad, I have a good group of people with me, that's all that matters.  

Maybe there'll be more adventures soon but for now...

Over and out! 

J.Lxxx